Teen Titans Yellow Version
by fanfictionconnoisseur
Summary: Red must figure out which species of pokemon have left the pokemon world to live in Jump City. The Teen Titans take him in, but involve him with their enemies including H.I.V.E. and Team Rocket!
1. Chapter 1

Teen Titans: Yellow Version

I wiped my nose as Professor Oak took the stand in front of the portal, the swirling purple vortex lit the room with just adequate light. "Hello and as you know my name is Professor Oak," he declared, "some people call me the Pokémon professor. But that's obvious here on our world. I'm a veritable unknown through this portal in Jump City, but my expertise is none the less required. Fantastic creatures that we all know as Pokémon are unknown there too but… they've appeared there. The Justice League of that world has reached out and so a couple of my chosen pupils and I are going to go through to help them with the adjustment of suddenly being a Pokémon world."

He sighed and then smiled with gusto. "See, some of the people will know Pokémon as pets and others will travel and battle alongside them. It'll be our job to show them how. Red, Blue and I will be the guides of that world on their Pokémon journey!"

The professor looked down to Blue and I and said, "Well then, without further ado… down the diglet hole we go!"

I tightened my yellow backpack's straps, dusted off my faded jeans, and adjusted my favorite cap. "Let's do this!"

Blue sniggered and swaggered up the stage and through the portal first. I rolled my eyes and followed. When I came through on the other side I asked, "Have you ever taken in the moment? Just once? Always rushing around."

Blue didn't respond, or he didn't hear me, because he stood, jaw hanging, staring ahead. I turned and saw Jump City. The buildings seemed to go on forever before us. The crowded up on the mountains and pushed up against a harbor… a harbor without an inch of actual sand. It was all hidden beneath docks! "Whoa…" I gasped.

Professor Oak whooshed out of the portal behind us and nodded. "Jump City is over forty square miles. Make Saffron look rustic, eh?"

He stepped between us to stand in front of us and reached into his lab coat, procuring two red squares. "These are your pokedexes. It has all the information I've gathered over years of research in our world. It's blank now because these pokedexes will serve as… high tech encyclopedias on the Pokémon that exist in Jump County."

The Professor pointed out behind us, where a giant antennae rose out of the water behind the island we found ourselves on. "Those antennae have managed to contain the spread of Pokémon to just outside Jump City in what is now being referred to as Jump County."

Blue tapped my shoulder and I turned to see that next to us, on the island, was a giant building constructed in the shape of a "T." "That is a bit more complicated to explain than the pokedex," Professor Oak explained, "this world has people in it that aren't like anything like our world. Certain people have strange abilities that one might associate with a Pokémon. Some people use their powers for good and others… don't. The good ones are called superheroes and they have a Justice League to protect their earth. Their heroes in training are called the Teen Titans and they live and work here. The Justice League has arranged for you two to stay here as you work."

The Professor strolled towards the tower. "Let's go, shall we?"

As we came up to the entrance a guy stepped out in a red tunic emblazoned with a yellow "R", green pants and boots, a yellow cape, and a domino mask concealing his eyes. "You guys must be the lab assistants," he said, "We've been waiting and we can't wait to see what you can do."

The professor gestured to the strangely dressed guy and said, "This is Robin, the leader of the Teen Titans."

I held out my hand to shake his and he grasped it. "The name's Red. What are your super powers?"

Robin grinned and ran his other hand over his spikey hair, "Not all of us have powers. I'm just trained to fight. Are you?"

We let go of the shake and I scratched the back of my head, "I'm familiar with the concept, but probably not like a super hero."

Blue punched my arm lightly. "What a nerdy response!"

Robin shrugged, "I expected as much. We'll work on it as things go. That said: the meeting's started."

Robin led us into the tower, the base level of which was occupied by a lounge/garage with an airplane lookin' thing. At the back was an elevator which Robin got in, so we followed. The elevator climbed to nearly the top of the tower, opening to another lounge, but this one was well populated. There were costumed superheroes every which direction, but in the middle of the room was someone familiar. "Uncle Lance?" I shouted.

Lance wore a billowing red cape and a red and black costume that looked at home with everyone else in the room, complete with a pokeball print logo on his chest. His eyebrows climbed his forehead and then a grin spread over his face. "You're _finally_ here? Took you long enough!"

A man in a blue and red suit with an "S" on his chest turned too. "If the professor is here then we can leave."

He levitated off the ground and said to Lance, "You guys say what you need to and then Zeta to the Hall of Justice."

Most of the heroes in the room disappeared in flashes of sparkling light leaving Robin, the Professor, Blue and I with Lance and three other people who looked vaguely familiar. "The Elite Four," Blue whistled, "In the same room as me."

Lance came over, put an arm over Blue and I before marching us over to a circular coffee table. He tapped the surface of the table and it came to life as a computer screen. A map of Jump County came to life. "Here's your mission," Lance said, "Outside of the pokedex, of course. Jump City has been split into 8 sections. We've put at least one competent Pokémon trainer from our world in each one of these sections. While you're exploring, capturing Pokémon, or working with the Titans, you need to meet with them and they'll help your training."

"Again, the focus should just be your pokedex though," Professor Oak said, and nudged Blue.

One of the Elite Four, Agatha, based on her age and flowy purple dress. "The situation has changed ya old geezer."

"What happened?" I asked.

Robin stepped forward and plugged a flash drive into the table. A red "R" popped up onto the screen and a yellow hexagon. "Several criminal syndicates have become a problem in Jump City. We've been dealing with H.I.V.E. for years but there's a new one called Team Rocket. Someone showed some thugs how to capture and train Pokémon that they're using to pull off robberies."

"That sounds like something Red and Blue could _grow_ to help with," Oak said carefully.

Robin tapped the hexagon logo and video footage of a room with three pokeballs came up. "While you were gone H.I.V.E. infiltrated the tower. Grabbed the three starter Pokémon."

A girl dressed in a green body suit snuck into the room, threw the pokeballs into a bag, and snuck out. "This was all I managed to salvage from our servers after a H.I.V.E. virus hit our systems," Robin explained.

Oak lost his composure, gripping his hair he screeched, "Those were incredibly rare Pokémon!"

Lance patted my shoulder, "and while the Elite Four is partnered with the Justice League, we can't go after Rocket or H.I.V.E."

"Our city, our mission, our problem," Robin explained, "no leaguers come into Jump City without our permission."

Agatha grinned at me, "We'll get to see what these two can do. No arguments from me."

I looked over to Robin. "That seems a bit unorthodox."

He narrowed his eyes, "I was raised by Batman. Trust me. The Justice League being involved doesn't mean much more than a massively bigger mess."

I raised my hands in surrender and Blue sniggered again. "Makin' friends, huh?" he whispered.

Lance reached behind his back and procured two pokeballs, putting them on the table. "I've got these two Pokémon. A Pikachu and Dratini."

With shaking hands, I moved the closer pokeball so I could see inside it. The red top was just translucent enough for me to see the electric mouse inside. "A Pikachu?" I asked.

"Found it outside," Lance shrugged.

Blue snatched at the Dratini. "A dragon Pokémon! This one is mine!"

I looked at Lance and shrugged. "Pikachu will be a great partner anyway."

I threw the pokeball up and it released Pikachu. The Pokémon dropped into my arms and I smiled. "My very own Pokémon!"

Oak slipped a pokedex into my jeans pocket and a computer like voice came out of it. "Pikachu, the electric mouse Pokémon. When several of these Pokémon gather, they can combine their electricity to cause lightning storms."

I beamed at my new partner, "See? I told you."

Blue released Dratini, and snatched his pokedex from Professor Oak's hand. His said, "Dratini, the dragon Pokémon, long considered a mythical Pokémon until a colony was discovered underwater."

"I've got the best Pokémon there is!" Blue declared.

Robin cleared his throat. "Can we uh, get back to work?"

Oak tapped the map over the rural district and zoomed in on a lonely building in the middle of a field. "I've set up my lab away from home here. That's where these two will start. Half the day on my errand, half the day working in the tower."

"That sounds more than equitable," Robin said, "I'll see you here tomorrow for training exercises with the rest of the team then."


	2. Chapter 2

Ch 2

Professor Oak had set up a building in the middle of a clearing by a pond in the Rural District. Two houses had been set up there too, one for my mother and the other for Daisy, Blue's elder sister. When I woke up the next day the first thing I did was let Shock out of his pokeball. He leapt into my bed and curled up on my pillow while I got dressed. As I pulled on my cap I turned back to Shock who was watching me with one open eye. "You ready to go?" I asked.

Shock yawned and stood up in affirmation so I pulled out his pokeball and tried to return him to it, but he dodged the return beam effortlessly and crawled up my leg to my backpack, which he sat on. He squeaked in a way that sounded awful like a chuckle and then looked to the door. "Wow," I said, "uh, okay, you can ride up there I guess."

Downstairs my mom waved and offered me a breakfast sandwich. "Have a good first day honey," she sighed, "I guess all boys have to leave home eventually."

I gave her an inquisitive glance. "I'll be back tonight. Would you really just let me wander around unsupervised? That would be terrible parenting."

She shrugged. "You're fifteen. I took off at ten."

"Grandpa was an alcoholic!" I exclaimed. "He used to beat you."

She tapped her chin absently, "Yeah. I guess that does make this different."

I sighed, "You know what? Whatever. I'm going on my adventure now."

I wasn't outside for a full second before I came face to face with Blue. He had a mischievous grin that I associated with one of his "fun" pranks. However both of his hands were in plain sight and there wasn't a crème pie to be seen. "What are you smirking at?" I demanded.

"Don't you want to know?" he asked and pulled out his pokeball.

Shock jumped off of my shoulder and onto the ground between us, electricity jumping off his cheeks. "Don't you want to know who's stronger?" Blue asked, releasing Dratini, "my Pokémon or yours?"

Dratini, like Pikachu, was a basic Pokémon, but unlike Pikachu, was quite a bit larger. Pikachu stood just a bit over a foot on his hind legs while Dratini was almost six feet long. But my uncle had said they were both starter Pokémon. The difference in power should have been minimal. "You're on," I declared, "It's a Pokémon battle!"

I had no intention of letting him get the first hit so I shouted, "Thundershock!"

Shock generated a blue ball of electricity in his hands and pushed it Dratini, who recoiled as electricity raced over his skin. "Use wrap," Blue commanded.

Dratini slithered around Shock and tightened until all I could see of my Pokémon was his head. "Thundershock again," I said, "You can do it!"

Electricity raced through Dratini, but it just tightened its grip. Shock let out a pained squeak and tried again. "It's like our attacks aren't doing anything at all…" I remarked.

"Dragon Pokémon are resistant to electric attacks loser," Blue taunted, "but Pikachu is really feelin' the pressure."

"You're just as strong as he is Shock!" I reminded, "Put your heart into it and you can't go wrong!"

"Really?" Blue asked, "Put your heart into it?"

Shock took a deep breath and covered Dratini in electricity. Dratini let go but Shock kept up the pressure until Dratini flopped unconscious. "You can't be that lucky!" Blue cried and recalled Dratini.

"You'd be surprised how important heart is to a fight Blue," Professor Oak said as he strode around the corner of my house, "It can make all the difference in the world."

The Professor grabbed Blue's pokeball and brought it into his lab where he stuck it into his healing machine. The machine was just like the ones in Pokémon centers in our world, flashy screens and vital reading and everything "Feel free to use this anytime, by the way," he said as he handed the ball back to Blue.

"We gonna get started on the pokedex then?" Blue asked.

The Professor nodded and gestured to a nearby table where two sets of six pokeballs were waiting. "Those are for you two. You each get six compliments of me."

Blue and I shared a glance before we ran over the table, nearly knocking each other over. Shock didn't take kindly to the jostling and… well, tazed me, sending me tumbling to the floor. I took the table leg to my forehead and was seeing double for a moment on the ground. "You can't even control your Pokémon," Blue sniggered, "how's it feel to be dumber than a Pikachu?"

Shock meant to electrify Blue alone I'm sure, but he was standing on me and got me a second time. "Please stop," I managed through chattering teeth.

Shock noticed me and patted my head gently as I stood up. I shoved the pokeballs into my pack and the Professor gave me a wry smile. "Pikachu can have an _electrifying_ personality, eh?"

He nudged me and I glowered at him. Blue sniggered again and walked out of the lab, with the me and the Professor in tow. Outside the Professor said, "Okay, so today I want you to catch a Pokémon. Just one. That's why I provided five pokeballs. I figure you'll mess up a few times."

I raised my hand and Blue rolled his eyes. "Yes, Red?" the Professor inquired.

I cleared my throat and asked, "Where do I find a Pokémon?"

Oak gestured with wide arms to our surroundings. "Pokémon live all over the place. Go out into the world and look! Wild Pokémon will try to battle you to see if you're a worthy trainer."

Blue clenched his fist and then swiped his arm out to chop through the air. "That's easy. I'll be done with today's assignment in no time and then I'll go and train my Pokémon!"

"Second person back has to run errands for me," Oak supplied, "to, ah, keep it interesting."

I stared Blue down for a moment and then took off into the field surrounding the lab. I came upon a patch of tall grass and slowed to a walk. Back in my world this would have been a prime wild Pokémon habitat. I grinned and declared, "Wild Pokémon! I'm coming for you!"

The grass came up to around my waist and I was moving slow, but I nearly jumped out of my own body when something brushed against my leg. "Shock, do you see anything?" I asked.

Shock bristled but shook his head, so I kept going forward. Something rustled behind me and I turned just in time for something to crash into the side of my knee. I toppled over, that same something latched onto the handle of my backpack, and dragged me, leaving Shock in the tall grass.

When we left the Tall grass whatever had me tossed me sending me rolling away from the grass patch. I got up to my knees and saw I was nearly face to face with a male Nidoran. "You're a rare Pokémon where I come from," I told it and it dug into the ground below it with its right forepaw.

Shock dashed out of the grass and leapt between me and the Nidoran. "Use Thundershock!" I shouted.

Shock threw a ball of electricity at the enemy Pokémon, and clearly Nidoran hadn't seen one before because he just stared at it. The thundershock attack knocked Nidoran back, but he leapt up again, looking angry this time.

Nidoran charged but Shock leapt up to dodge and then threw another thundershock Nidoran's way. I pulled out a pokeball and threw it at the Nidoran. The ball hit him and encapsulated him, rocked once, but then shattered, releasing the enemy Pokémon.

"That's allowed?" I asked.

Shock gave me an inquisitive look so I said, "That always worked on TV."

Shock rolled his eyes and was totally unprepared for Nidoran to charge again. Nidoran dipped his head and then used the horn on his forehead to send Shock up and over into the tall grass. I tried a second pokeball, and tried to hold it closed with my hands.

The pokeball rocked twice and I grinned but that one two shattered, leaving me holding a very hostile wild Pokémon. "Nice Nidoran?" I asked.

It narrowed its eyes at me, struggled loose and then head-butted my crotch. I fell over just as Shock emerged from the tall grass. "Get him…" I squeaked.

Shock zapped the wild Pokémon again, and this time Nidoran had trouble standing up. I rolled the third Pokémon over to it, and Nidoran was captured with ease. I snatched the ball off the ground and held it in front of Shock. "We caught a Pokémon!" I bellowed.

Shock cheered and then wobbled, so I grabbed him and set him on my pack. "You stay there… I'll do the work from here on out!"

As I strolled back to the lab I pulled out my pokedex and opened Nidoran's entry. It said, "Nidoran, the Poison Pin Pokémon, Its large ears sense danger. It extends its toxic spikes when angry. The size of its body thorns indicates its toxicity."

"How do you feel about the nickname Spike?" I asked Shock.

Shock grunted his disinterest, so I went with it. "Spike it is."

When I saw the lab I also saw Blue far on the other side, approaching, so I went into a sprint. He started moving faster too. We nearly crashed into each other again and walked into the lab at the same time. "I got a Pokémon!" we both shouted and then glared at each other.

"What did you get?" Blue demanded.

I showed him Spike in his pokeball. "Beat a Nidoran!" I cackled.

"My Rattata is way better," Blue insisted, "He's in the top percentage of Rattata."

"So he sucks like you do?" I retorted.

"It's a tie," Professor Oak declared, "You both finished your assignment in the same amount of time so you both have to run an errand for me. There's a package waiting for me at Titans tower. Get over there and grab it for me, would you?"

"This is a waste of my time!" Blue snapped, "I could be out training or filling the pokedex."

"I wasn't done yet," the Professor insisted, "while you're there get your training in with Robin and return to me with the package when you're done for the day."

The Professor gestured over to a tube I didn't recognize. "That's a Zeta tube. It'll warp you over to Titans Tower. Go train hard and have fun."

I stepped into the tube first, light flashed, and just like that I was in the lobby of Titan's Tower again. An instant later Blue flashed into place beside me. "Neat trick," Blue admitted.

A woman in a red leotard with yellow stars and Robin stepped out of the elevator. "Who are-?" the woman asked.

"Our new recruits," Robin explained, "and they'll have to wait. A villain named Mad Mod is attacking the city you guys. Luckily we don't have to do this in person. Head up to the floor labeled "D" and you should find the simulation prepped for you."

As they ran out Blue and I stepped into the elevator. Blue hit "D" and we started out ascent. "What do you think that stands for?" I asked.

"Why are you worried about training?" Blue rolled his eyes, "I'm sure it's just a weight room and track or something."

The elevator opened up to a room with silver walls, ceiling and floor. I took a tentative step out and a blue light shone from the wall behind us to project holograms that spelled out "Danger Room." I turned to Blue and nodded at him. "Right. Weights and a track. How could this go wrong?"

A holographic Professor Oak appeared before us. "The goal of simulation 14D is teamwork. Pokemon trainers should work together to reach the end of the obstacle course using their pokemon and wits."

The silver walls fell away revealing a field with a single tree before us, in the shade of which was a brown box tied shut with string and arrows pointing to it labeled Oak's package. "Easy," Blue declared, "What's the deal with this?"

I took a step forward and a holographic Pidgey flapped down from above me to sit in my path. "Maybe we're supposed to battle it."

As I took a second step the Pidgey puffed out its feathers and squawked a warning. "It's just a hologram," Blue reassured me, "What's it gonna do?"

Before my second foot could touch the ground the Pidgey leapt up and flapped actual wind at me, knocking me back through the hoop. Shock abandoned ship to my right as I fell and landed perfectly by my head. "Ow," I pushed myself up to my elbows and stared at the holo-Pidgey.

I pointed at the training simulation and said, "Thundershock it."

Shock tossed a blue ball of electricity at the holo-Pidgey and it dissolved into cubes that fell through the floor leaving just me, Blue and Shock alone with the tree again. Blue offered me a hand up and we took another step towards the tree, but then two holo-Pidgeys fluttered down in front of us. "I guess this is the teamwork part," I reasoned, and Blue let out his Dratini.

"Thundershock," I commanded.

Blue pointed forward for dramatic effect and said, "Wrap!"

The holo-Pidgeys were entirely outmatched, but doubled again with another footstep. "Come on out Spike!" I shouted and unleashed my newest Pokémon.

He pawed at the holographic dirt and let out a battle cry. "Thundershock and Tackle!" I shouted.

Shock zapped the Pidgey on the furthest right and Spike plowed over the second to the right. Blue had Dratini wrap one up while he called out his Rattata. The four holo-Pidgeys went down and my pokedex beeped in my pocket. I pulled it out and it said, "Shock the Pikachu has learned to use 'Thunder Wave.' This move does no damage, but paralyzes enemies."

"Alright Shock!" I whooped and gave him a hug, but by doing so took a step forward.

A holo-Pidgeotto fluttered down from above to stand before me and Blue. Spike's ears perked up. "That's the evolved form of Pidgey! It'll give us more experience than these scrubs," Blue pointed at it, "Let's give it everything we've got."

"Teamwork," I whispered, "Okay…"

Blue gave me a look of derision. I got what he was thinking, it didn't seem right to work with him instead of against him. Spike charged, but Pidgeotto flapped up and out of the way. "Thunder wave," I commanded.

Shock swiped a single paw in holo-Pidgeotto's direction and blue waves of electricity cascaded at the holo-Pidgeotto and it plummeted back to the ground. Spike turned around and charged back, but the enemy rolled out of the way on top of Ratatta. "If that is a top-percentage Ratatta…" I teased.

Spike ducked his head and took out Blue's ankle. "Worry about your own Pokémon!" he admonished.

"Spike, c'mere," I snapped my fingers, and he ran back to stand by my right leg.

"Dratini, wrap!" Blue shouted.

Dratini slithered across the distance between them and coiled around the enemy. I tapped Spike's side and smirked, "Now! Tackle!"

With Pidgeotto immobilized by the status problem and Dratini's attack Spike was able to blow through the holo Pokémon, turning it into blue squares that fell through the floor. When we stepped forward again, no Pokémon appeared, so we strolled into the shade of the tree.

I picked up the parcel and Blue tapped my shoulder. Behind us had appeared shadows that walked on the grass in the shape of our Pokémon. A shadow version of us pulled themselves off the ground and waved, with smiles that were too large and said, "Next time…"

With that they disappeared into nothing, and the simulation ended with Blue and I back in the silver room. I recalled my Pokémon and Blue did the same. As we got into the elevator Blue asked, "We don't have to tell anyone about any of that, right?"

"That we worked together? No," I answered, "I've got a rep to maintain."

"Loser," Blue snapped.

"Poser," I retorted, but through a smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Ch 3

We returned to the lobby of Titans Tower and Blue pulled up a video call with Professor Oak. When the Professor's face popped up I brandished his parcel at the screen. "Ah, good!" he said, "Well, it is my understanding that the Titans are busy so I'm going to ask you to get some more work done on the pokedex."

He picked up a tablet from his desk and showed us a picture of a forest. "Jump City hikers enjoy frequenting the nearby forest trails for their winding paths and natural feel but word is that some sort of Pokémon infestation is causing the hikers some distress. We'd be able to make the people feel better if we could tell them which kinds of Pokémon are there."

Oak pointed to the Zeta tube behind us and said, "I'll warp you to the lab and you can make your way to the forest in short order."

Blue dashed over to the tube and flashed that infuriating grin at me as he blinked out of sight, but I was close behind him. The Professor's lab came into view with a flash of light. "Just be careful out in the forest, okay?" the Professor beseeched us, "on the other side of that forest is the mountain district and there are reports of things worse than wild Pokémon coming out of there, understood?"

I saluted crisply while Blue waved as he left. "That guy is a pain," I grumbled as I was forced to follow his lead.

The forest wasn't too far from the lab, but Shock seemed overeager to get there. "What's up?" I asked.

Shock grunted and pointed at Blue who was a bit ahead of us. "He annoys you too?"

My Pokémon nodded so I smirked and stroked his head. "Well then… you wanna send a statement?"

I'd like to think the malicious glint in Shock's eyes mirrored my own. "When I run by, use thunder wave to slow him down and we'll run into the forest at top speed!"

Shock dipped his head and focused on our rival. I picked up the pace to a jog and then a full on sprint. Blue turned to see what the fuss was about just in time to take a wave of electricity to the face, sending him onto his backside as we surged past. I cackled like a madman as I plunged into the forest and kept running.

I'd known Blue since I was little and if I knew one thing about Blue it was that there would be a reprisal for our little prank and I wanted distance to keep the damage minimal. However, in my eagerness to get into the forest and then zigzag my way out of target lock I didn't really keep track of my way back _out_ of the forest. Shock made a fast, repetitive noise on my shoulder that sounded like a case of turbo hiccups. "You okay?" I asked.

When I turned to look at him over my shoulder he was doubled over on my backpack writhing with joy. "Are you laughing at him or me?"

A tiny, furry paw pointed off into the woods. I glanced around to find an exit, but trees went in all directions. "Let's find the issue and then we'll find our way out, okay buddy?"

Shock wiped tears out of his eyes and squeaked in a way that left me feeling like he felt being lost was worth it. I picked a direction and started walking. The floor of the forest itself was flat, but there were nothing but the trees themselves grew in odd ways. There were a few trees dispersed throughout, forming a canopy so each could get the maximum sunlight, sure, but other trees were growing thin and right next to each other.

I took off my pack and tried to squeeze between two of these trees, but I couldn't even get past my shoulder. Shock tried too, but to no avail. The thin trees might as well have been a wall… or prison bars. "Something's not right here…" I whispered to Shock.

I looked up to the thin tree's branches and saw that they were tangled up in each other, blocking each other from getting sunlight, but none of the leaves were dying. Upon closer inspection, the wood of these thin trees looked warped like they'd been struck by lightning, but there was no discoloration and it looked alive. These trees had been altered by Pokémon.

The Viridian forest back home in the Kanto region had been turned into a natural maze by such Pokémon. And the Pokémon that lived in Viridian were bug and often poison type Pokémon. Similar Pokémon were probably making their homes in this forest now. It was no wonder that hikers were having trouble here… the forest itself was changing and wild Pokémon were around.

I stepped away from the trees and pulled my pack back on. People would need Pokémon trainer guides from this point on in this forest. The Professor would want to know and the Titans would need to be alerted, but I couldn't think of a way to contact them. If I ran out of the forest I wouldn't even really know what kinds of Pokémon were hazards or otherwise so I couldn't leave. "We need to find a Pokémon habitat in here," I told Shock, "keep your eyes out for a clearing, or a way past these trees, kay?"

Shock nodded and I resumed our walkabout in the forest. Keeping the thin trees to my right, I followed, looking for an opening. The wall turned right twice, went for quite a while before turning left, and that was when I came face to face with Blue. His usual disinterested expression was absent, replaced by one of utter fear as he ran towards me. Without so much as a word he sprinted past me and it was only once he was already gone when I saw the pair of angry Beedrill that were in pursuit.

They were so furious with Blue that they totally ignored me, preferring to focus on their quarry. I whistled with pity and Shock fell into another round of giggles. "Not his day," I remarked before continuing off the way the Beedrill had come. Sure enough not fifty feet away was a Beedrill nest.

Kakuna hung from every branch, watching me, unmoving, and then a horde of Weedle came out of the trees and bushes to face me. Shock leapt down from my shoulder to land between us and them. Electricity arced off him to touch the ground and he let out a battle cry. "Thunder-Shock!" I cried.

Shock hit the nearest Weedle with a thundershock, which knocked it out and got its friends to think twice. Weedle evolved into Kakuna which evolved into Beedrill. So long as I trained one of the Weedle, I would complete the pokedex on its evolutionary line, but that meant having a battle with one, not a horde. I tossed Spike's pokeball into the air and he landed next to Shock. "Find the strongest one," I said, "We'll capture that one."

Spike lowered his head and charged into the Weedle horde. The bug Pokémon weren't fast enough to move out of the way, so the ones he hit went down, but the ones he missed started to attach string shots to his hind legs. I pointed at the strings searched through my pack to grab my pocket knife. When I had it I flipped the blade open and chased after Spike.

My Nidoran, to his credit, was only slowed, and not stopped by the stands, but I severed them anyway. As the last of the strings fell away, enabling Spike's rampage to return to optimal speed, something hit my left ankle, and pain roared up my leg. I fell over and clutched at a spike shaped stinger that I found embedded in the area in question.

I pulled the stinger out and Shock ran over to me as Spike continued to clear the field of the insect horde. Shock danced over unconscious Weedle to stand on my chest and faced down the only Weedle left standing. I pulled a pokeball out of my pack and tossed it at the enemy Pokémon. The ball rocked back and forth for a moment, but then sparks signaled the successful capture.

Spike came around, the Weedle horde retreating, and nudged his way under my hand so that I was effectively petting him. "Good job buddy," I said as I recalled him to his pokeball.

Through the red opaque cover of his ball I could see him running around in a circle excitedly before settling under a virtual tree for an actual nap. Shock hopped off me and sniffed my ankle cautiously. The panic on his furry face was evident, so I stood up and offered him my arm as a ramp up to my back. "No point in staying here for the Beedrill to find us. Let's get a move on."

Shock ran up my arm and stood on my shoulder, so I went back the way I'd come. Every step hurt a bit, but it was totally manageable. By the time I had returned to the place where I'd initially realized I was lost, I took a seat under a nearby tree. It wasn't until I sat down that I realized how much pain I was in.

The pain had worked its way up to my knee and by no means eased up in my ankle itself. I massaged my leg and craned my neck around to see through the canopy. The light seemed to be coming from my right, which meant I was facing north. The Professor's lab was north of the forest, so I got back up, stumbled forward onto my knee, and screamed.

The pain had receded to pins and needles but the poison was clearly doing its work. When I got back up to my feet there was a guy with green skin, messy green hair, pointed ears and a white and red leotard. "Hallucinogenic poison?" I asked myself.

The figure chuckled and shook his head. "Nope. Regular old poison. I'm Beast Boy. Teen Titan. The professor sent us into the forest to look for you."

He held out a spray can and said, "He also thought you might want an antidote after Blue stumbled out of the forest."

The world got fuzzy, but I didn't need to fight it as hard as I had been so I fell back onto the ground, and Beast Boy's eyes widened. "Whoa there buddy! Don't go crashin' on me now!"

Beast Boy gave me the once over real quick before focusing on my ankle. He pulled off my shoe and rolled the leg of my jeans up so he could see the actual wound and sprayed the antidote on it. The pain went away almost instantly. "That better?" he asked.

I nodded, and pulled out my Weedle's pokeball. "All that because of this little guy. Non-Pokémon trainers should stay out of this forest. There's a Beedrill nest."

Beast Boy's eyebrows climbed his forehead and then he smiled. "You completed the mission. Nice. Let's get out of here."

He winked before he grew and transformed into a horse. He turned to the north and then exclaimed, "Hop on and hold on!"

I jumped up and Spark dashed onto Beast Boy's head as he took off. The trees melted away quickly enough and then we were tearing through the meadow around the Professor's lab. Oak, my mother, and Robin were waiting for us as we slowed. The second I touched down I held Weedle's pokeball out. "Found the poison Pokémon," I declared.

"Didn't we already know that?" Robin asked, then turned to me quickly, "Not to take away from what you did."

Oak grinned and said, "Red has proven that the Beedrill weren't just in the forest. They've built a nest and made it their home."

Robin tilted his head for a moment before nodding. "Okay. We'll ensure the mayor puts up a fence or something."

I pulled the pokeball back and stared at Weedle. "I think I'll call him Buzz. For when he's a Beedrill."

"You're gonna raise the Pokémon who poisoned you?" Beast Boy's jaw dropped.

I couldn't hold back my smile. "Yeah. He'll make my team so much stronger."

Oak stroked his chin sagaciously, "The words of a true Pokémon trainer. Blue won't be terribly thrilled of course. Those Beedrill nearly got him."

My mother shrugged, "I don't know. Blue caught that Caterpie. Butterfree has a type advantage over Weedle. Not a bad movepool either."

"Whose side are you one?" I demanded.

She pinched my cheeks with complete disregard for my dignity and said, "Yours, of course, sweetie. Just callin' it like I see it."

Robin gave me a wry smile, "Well it sounds like you've had quite the day. Rest up so the poison doesn't do any more damage and you'll start training with us in about a week."

"A week?" I asked.

"The only way I know how to train someone is the way I was trained," he shrugged, "and Batman didn't mess around. You should be at the height of health when we start training so that I can break you."

I gulped. "Awesome."

Beast Boy patted me on the back, "He's mostly joking. Hey, so show me the rest of these Pokémon you're in charge of."

He gently led me away from the lab and into the meadow. "Let's get some room to roam, if you know what I'm sayin' my man."

Once we were away from the lab I called out Spike and Buzz. "These are my Pokémon," I said carefully, "Why did you want to meet them?"

Beast Boy transformed into a rabbit and hopped around Spike. "I've seen animals like these, but… I wonder about something."

"What?" I kept my eyes on the fluffy, green bunny.

Spike huffed at Beast Boy and the teen backed away, "Do you think I could turn into one?"

I shrugged. "No idea. Wanna try?"

Beast Boy stared into Spike's eyes and shook with effort. I kneeled down to be close because I was fascinated and then Beast Boy farted before turning back into his human form. "Guess not."

The scent hit me like a hammer. Bunny farts = deadly. "Oh sweet Mew," I gagged.

"Sorry," Beast Boy scratched the back of his head and looked away, "had some tofu and beans earlier and, well… yeah."

"Oh my god that reeks!" I exclaimed as my eyes began to water.

Shock fell over, but Spike huffed and tackled Beast Boy's head to the ground. "Whoa! Get him offa me!"

Spike charged off of Beast Boy and back into his pokeball. I recalled Buzz and picked up Shock from the ground. "That one doesn't go back in a ball too?" Beast Boy asked.

Shock shook his head and I shrugged, "I hadn't really thought about it. I guess he doesn't like 'em."

Beast Boy stroked his chin like Oak had and asked, "Can anyone train a Pokémon?"

"Some people keep them as pets," I answered, "which doesn't require training, per se, but others, like me, choose to battle alongside them."

The green titan jumped up and offered me his hand. "Can you catch me one? I'd love a pet that I can't turn into."

With a little help up I was on my feet again and Shock clambered up my leg to hand from my pack. "I guess," I responded, "but which kind of Pokémon do you want?"

Beast Boy transformed into a monkey and helped Shock get up onto my right shoulder before taking a spot on my left. "What kind do you think would suit me?"

"I've got a few ideas," I chuckled, "but I don't really know what kinds there are in Jump County yet. Let's look around here, okay?"

We headed into the field and over to the tall grass where I'd caught Spike. "I've got to catalogue the Pokémon from here anyway. Might as well get ahead of Blue and catch you something nice."

Beast Boy turned into a fierce looking bird and took off into the air. He circled above us before returning to my shoulder. He pointed his beak to a lonely looking tree. When we got close I saw a Mankey lounging in the branches above us. Beast Boy transformed into a monkey and shook the branches, sending the wild Pokémon down to the ground. "Careful!" I shouted, "Mankey have a horrible temper!"

The monkey Pokémon got up off the ground with murder in its eyes. Shock jumped down between us and threw a thunder shock at the enemy Pokémon. Mankey dashed at Shock and ducked into a low kick, sending Shock tumbling forward and out of Mankey's way to me.

The enemy Pokémon jumped for me, but I leapt into the air, making it miss. As it came to a stop Shock ran between my legs to stand between us again. "Try Thunder Wave!"

Shock sent out a cascading wave of electricity, paralyzing Mankey. Shock disappeared from view and reappeared mid-tackle on Mankey like white on rice. "That was quick attack!" I clenched my fists and grinned, "Attaboy!"

I tossed my last pokeball at Mankey, and sparks showed a successful capture. Beast Boy jumped down from the tree and whistled, "Sorry about the branch-shaking."

I handed him the pokeball and pulled out my pokedex. "Mankey, the pig-monkey Pokémon, an agile Pokémon that lives in trees. It angers easily and will not hesitate to attack anything."

"Neat," I remarked and handed Beast Boy the pokeball, "you should use the Professor's healing machine back at the lab before you let, uh," I checked my pokedex, "her out of the ball."

A smirk tugged at the edges of Beast Boy's lips. "Wow. So I just need to, uh, what?"

I patted his back, "If you just want to keep her as a pet, then you should spend time with her, feed her, and, uh, well, be positive around her."

"Of course," Beast Boy said, looking offended, "She's my pet. I'll do all that stuff."

I shook my head, "No, no, no. You don't understand what I meant. Pokémon reflect their trainers. Even if you don't train Mankey to fight, if you train to fight, she'll get stronger. If you're in a good mood, so will she, but most importantly, if you do good things around her, she'll do good things."

"What happens if someone does bad things around a Pokémon?" Beast Boy asked.

"Pokémon are reflections of their trainers," I bit my lip, "If we end up fighting those Team Rocket guys like the Professor said then you'll see what a Pokémon can do when they go bad."

Beast Boy held his pokeball with both hands and nodded, "I'll do my best to train her right then," he declared, "and I think I'll call her… Daisy."

"Daisy?" I gave him an inquisitive look.

"It's a pretty name for a pretty monkey," he explained with his smirk becoming a full on smile.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Robin had said that training would be brutal. I knew it was going to hurt, but I couldn't have known just how bad. We stretched, which was nice, and then we did some running to the point I was breathless, but then Robin said the thing that made my stomach drop out of me. "Warm up done, fantastic," his grin was from ear to ear, "Now we can really get started."

"What?" Blue demanded.

The next two hours were defined by the most grueling physical activities I'd ever been unfortunate enough to endure. If it wasn't a core exercise it was plyometric. If I slowed down Robin used his escrima sticks to shock me back into motion like a stubborn Tauros. Blue dipped a bit behind me pretty early on, but I could feel him panting behind until I could no longer focus on anything other than my own pain. It only stopped when I literally fainted.

I woke up to a red head in a yellow/red suit with lightning imagery and Shock asleep on my chest. "Finally awake?" the guy asked.

"What happened?" I felt fine, which struck me as odd.

He patted my arm lightly. "Training happened. I gave you a bit of my blood to speed your recovery. You should be good to move."

I blinked. "What?"

His eyes widened and gasped, "You don't know me, do you?! Oh my god, I'm sorry. The name's Kid Flash! I've got accelerated healing along with super speed. A little speed force blood goes a long way."

I moved my legs over the edge of the bed, startling Shock, and looked around. It was just him, this particular Teen Titan, and me in a bedroom, that judging from the spectacular view of Jump City harbor, was pretty high up in the tower. Kid Flash stood up and looked out too. "Not bad, huh? This is your room for whenever you need it," he said.

"How did you build this?" I asked.

He bit his lip and shrugged, "City built it. Powers it. They like us being here. Makes the supervillains nervous."

Then a thought occurred to me, "Where's Blue?"

Kid Flash winced, "Well, about that… he went down faster than you did-"

"He did?!" I didn't mean to sound as excited as I did, "but I could swear he was right behind me the whole time!"

"Well he wasn't," he insisted, "fell back, and then went down around where we all expected. You though… impressed us."

"Huh?"

Kid Flash shrugged, "We were watching from another room. I bet that you would last longer, but hadn't known just how long. You're the one people are talking about, and you won me a nice dinner later."

I nodded, "So he's in his room?"

That earned me a chuckle. "He didn't like going down before you did. Made a lot of noise about more training and went into the Wasteland district to the east of Jump County."

"We haven't identified all the pokemon in the rural district," I pursed my lips and stood up. "He must want to get ahead of me on the pokedex."

I wasn't wearing pants, or, I noticed, anything but my boxer briefs. "Oh, yeah, your clothes were pretty damp there bro," he pulled out a basket with my clothes in it, "freshly washed. You may consider wearing something a bit more athletic than jeans next time."

I pulled my jeans up and shrugged. "I like 'em though."

My shirt felt warm when I pulled it on and Shock clambered up to my belt as I grabbed my backpack. While the backpack was at waist level Shock pushed off me and twirled mid-air to latch onto the bag. "Hm," Kid Flash folded his arms, "That pokemon isn't like the others, is it?"

"What?" I asked.

"Your other pokemon and all of Blue's pokemon usually are in pokeballs, right?" He rubbed Shock's head lightly.

Shock's cheek flickered with electricity dangerously, Kid Flash retracted his hand, and my pokemon looked over to me. "I guess," I said and scratched behind Shock's ears, "Not all pokemon like pokeballs. Shock doesn't. He's special."

Shock huffed an affirmative while I pulled on my socks and shoes. While I pulled on my cap, Kid Flash smiled. "Mt. Crescent is beautiful around this time of year. Want to get to the Wasteland district too then?"

I patted myself down, and pulled my pokedex out of my bag before sticking it into my right pants pocket. Kid Flash turned into a blur of speed, and then the world melted away leaving me in the middle of a plain with a giant mountain in front of me. Kid Flash was next to me and he was petting Shock affectionately. "I see his charm, you know?"

Shock purred or may have been queasy. I was queasy so I might just be projecting that. "Did you just superspeed me?"

He elbowed my side playfully and said, "Nah I'll take you to dinner before I do that…. I kid I kid."

That joke and pun felt like a double tap to my brain. Thought stopped. My mouth moved, but there was no noise that came out of it. Kid Flash laughed and then saluted, "And with that… I'm off."

He disappeared in a blur back the way we'd apparently came. It was only when he was gone that I thought to check my bag for pokeballs. I hadn't asked the Professor for any after catching Buzz. I turned away from the mountain and saw the fields of the rural district in the distance. It would be one hell of a walk, but it was totally doable.

I started moving that direction when three Geodude with glowing red eyes rolled into my path. "Uh oh."

Geodude wouldn't be affected by either Buzz or Shock, so I tossed Spike's pokeball into the air. Light spilled out of the pokeball and fell to the ground where it formed into my male Nidoran. "Tackle!" I shouted.

Spike ran at the geodude on the far right, lowered his head and… flew backwards the way he'd come. I clapped a hand to my forehead. Rock was one of the few pokemon types that didn't take normal damage.

Spike, however, landed on his feet and instead of a whimper of pain just huffed indignantly. My pokedex beeped before sounding off, "Nidoran has learned to use Double Kick."

"Double Kick," I said, hoping that it would be effective.

Spike dashed at the Geodude, but this time spun in mid-air to deliver a kick with its right hind leg, pushing the enemy pokemon into the ground, and then kicked with his left, pushing it into the cracked earth.

The other two geodude rolled at my pokemon, but Spike was in no mood, and batted each of them away with another round of double kicks. The Geodude fell unconscious where Spike left them. Shock jumped down from my shoulder to pat Spike's head affectionately. "Atta boy!" I shouted.

Spike turned to look at me and jumped up at my chest. I caught him, and spun around, "You da man!"

He nuzzled his head into my chest which poked me a bit, but was totally bearable. Shock ran back up to stand on my shoulder and I turned around to face Mt. Crescent. "Those Geodude weren't right in the head," I murmured, staring up at the menacing mountain, "and I bet that if we go that way we can find out why. Help the pokemon there… and Blue might be in trouble too I guess."

Spike nodded and leapt down, so I recalled him to his pokeball. I took off at a jog towards the mountain. There weren't many pokemon about, but I saw a Clefairy and Jigglypuff duking it out until they both collapsed. Those pokemon were usually peaceful, and my theory about something being up solidified in the back of my mind.

The wasteland, as they called it, thinned towards Mt. Crescent with hills and rocky cliffs forming a path forward. I slowed before entering the cliffs and sidled through the shadow, careful to watch for any possible ambush scenarios along with any signs of anything that could cause pokemon to go berserk.

There weren't any signs of anything too out of the ordinary, but eventually the hills turned into a second Cliffside with odd letters I didn't recognize carved into the cliffs themselves. The further along the path I went, the taller the cliffs got and then pictures of people started to appear. Warriors in armor with giant, circular shields bathed in the light of a crescent moon. Shock touched the moon and recoiled, sending a chill down my spine.

The entire mountain could be haunted or cursed. I'd heard rumors of the screams that came out of Lavender Town's Pokemon Tower. Ghost Pokemon were real. Why not a curse on a different world?

If Blue was caught up in that, he would need someone to save him, and I'd get to rub it in his face that I'd saved him. I stopped sidling and began running in earnest down the path between the cliffs. Ahead I could see the cliffs connect above at the foot of the mountain to form a kind of roof or cave, and at the mouth of the cave was Blue, facing in.

I tapped him on the shoulder and he didn't even turn around, "I was wondering how long it would take you to get here Red."

"We should leave," I said quietly, "Get the Titans. Kid Flash didn't seem to think anything about this place, but… did you see any pokemon on your way here?"

Blue turned around to reveal his glowing red eyes. "All I can see is a loser out of his depth," he snarled, "I should put you in your place."

He pulled a pokeball out of his pocket and let out his Pidgey. Shock jumped down and sparked with electricity. I knew he wasn't right in the head, but I was itching to show him that training with Robin wasn't all I was better at. Shock jumped into the battle and looked back at me, offering a tiny nod.

"Thunder Shock!" I cried.

Pidgey flapped its wings to stir up some sand, but Shock threw his attack through it to drive into the enemy pokemon. Pidgey went down and I pointed to it, "Quick Attack before it gets up."

Shock disappeared and reappeared delivering a body blow to the grounded Pidgey. Shock pushed off into a flip, landing in front of Blue. Blue didn't even wait to recall Pidgey when he sent out Dratini. "You don't stand a chance!" he roared.

"Thunder Wave," I retorted.

Shock sent out a cascading wave of electricity, which stopped Dratini, and then I said, "Quick Attacks! Like we planned!"

Shock disappeared from view, reappearing to knock Dratini over, and then disappeared again. Each individual blow wasn't anything to be proud of, but they'd wear Dratini down. The Dragon pokemon wasn't moving, but it was getting pushed around with each blow.

Blue's eyes intensified and Dratini's began to glow too. The Dragon began to glow and Shock stopped to watch from a distance. Dratini's first layer of skin exploded off it, turning into glitter, revealing a very mobile enemy pokemon.

Shock's jaw dropped just in time to be bathed in a torrent of blue flame. The fire washed over Shock, leaving him unconscious. "Dragon Rage," I marveled.

I returned Shock to his pokeball to rest and let out Spike. "Double Kick!"

Spike kicked Dratini up, leapt up, and then kicked her towards the nearby wall. As Dratini traveled towards the wall she unleashed another Dragon Rage attack. As Spike slumped down in defeat, Dratini collided with the wall behind her, knocking her out too.

I recalled Spike and let out Buzz. Blue snarled and called out his Caterpie. "Poison sting!" I declared.

Buzz hit the enemy Pokémon with a projectile stinger, but Caterpie used String Shot on Buzz's feet. I pulled out my pocket knife and said, "Keep up the poison stings, I'll help you."

However Buzz had different ideas. He began to glow like Dratini had earlier, but then he sprayed string shot fluid up into the air so it fell on top of him. Caterpie's string and his string combined to form a shell around him which glowed and reshaped until it revealed that Buzz had evolved into a Kakuna. "Whoa!" I marveled.

Kakuna spun around in a circle on its downward point and faced Caterpie. Though it had no mouth a poison stinger shot out of its face to hit Caterpie. "Close in on him," Blue commanded, "Tackle."

Caterpie ran up, but I countered, "Harden!"

Kakuna turned silver as Caterpie collided with it, sending the enemy Pokémon spinning backwards. "Not today," I spat, "Today we win!"

Caterpie struggled to find its feet, but got hit with another poison sting. When Caterpie collapsed, Blue wobbled, his eyes returned to normal, and he collapsed. "What happened?" he asked.

I stepped over to him, and pulled his pokeballs out of his bag. "What're you doing?!" he demanded.

I recalled his Pokémon and put his pokeballs back. "Why were they just lying there?"

"You left them there," I responded, "you weren't yourself."

Blue nodded, and then looked up at me with wide eyes. "That thing hit me with some sort of laser."

"What thing?" I looked around, but we were alone.

He pulled out his pokedex and showed me a picture. It depicted a giant man made of stone with a head that looked like a cinderblock. I blinked and took a second look. There were even cinderblock logos on his chest and "belt." If superheroes could have lightning motifs, why wouldn't a supervillain have a cinderblock thing? "We need to run," I hissed, "Neither of our Pokémon are in any shape to take on a supervillain."

Blue clapped a hand over my mouth and pointed inside the cavern he'd been staring into. I narrowed my eyes, just barely able to see the back of the stone man. Buzz hopped over next to me and pivoted to look to me for direction. I scooped him up and pulled Blue up to lean on my shoulder.

We gingerly moved over to the shadows of the cliff side and sidled back the way we'd come. Blue leaned against the wall and pushed me away. He wobbled but stayed upright. "I can handle myself," he whispered, and kept moving.

He made it about five feet before falling directly on his kneecap. All his weight came down on it, and he cried out in pain. My head whirled around to look at our possible aggressor. The supervillain had indeed turned to see what he'd heard. We locked eyes and I stepped out of the shadows. "Blue, I need you to run, now!" I shouted, "Buzz and I will slow him down."

I heard Blue struggle to his feet and I pointed at the enemy. "String shot his feet to the ground."

The supervillain took a step forward, and Buzz shot a compressed bullet of string fluid, catching the foot. I took a step back as the villain moved forward and Buzz bound the second foot with a second shot. The enemy looked at us, down at his own feet, and then back up at me, with his stony features warping into a sadistic grin. "You try sticky Cinderblock?" he cackled, "Cinderblock sticky YOU!"

Threats don't always need to be grammatically correct to be effective. Cinderblock cackled and the rock floor broke off as he surged forward, and fused with him, creating larger feet. The better to squish me with, I hazarded to guess.

I turned and ran. Blue was stumbling ahead of me, using the wall to stay upright. "Run faster!" I shouted, "The plan didn't work! Run FASTER!"

Blue pushed off the wall and started a lurching sprint next to me. "What was the plan?" he asked.

"String shots to his feet," I explained.

Blue rolled his eyes, "That was a terrible plan!"

"Whose fault is that?!" I shouted, "I could have used my other Pokémon if _someone_ hadn't picked a fight!"

"We fought again?" Blue raised an eyebrow at me.

"I kicked your butt!" I cried, "We're even!"

Blue sped up, "Doesn't count. I wasn't in my right mind. You said so yourself."

"Tell that to your fainted Pokémon," I retorted, "oh… wait…"

A giant, square rock flew between our heads to land in our path. Then the rock turned around, revealing it was Cinderblock's head. I leapt over it but it twisted up to grab my left leg with its mouth. I fell hard, and Blue stopped to turn around. "It didn't kill you, maybe it won't kill me," I said, "Run. Get the Titans."

Blue reached into his pocket and pulled out a teal wrapped hard candy. With shaking hands he undid the wrapper and placed the candy on Buzz. The candy dissolved and seeped into my Pokémon. Then Blue took off without another word. "What the hell was that?!" I bellowed.

Buzz began to glow again, and a fully evolved Beedrill burst out of the Kakuna's shell. My Pokémon let out an ominous buzzing noise, and my pokedex beeped, "Beedrill has learned Fury Attack."

"Worth a shot," I whispered, then shouted, "Fury Attack!"

Buzz flew into Cinderblock's right shoulder, knocking him back a bit, then flew back to hit him behind the right knee, and then collided with the supervillain's left knee from the front. It was impressive looking, but not terribly effective.

Cinderblock swatted Buzz, sending him into a wall, and then threw a rock at my head, knocking me out.

I woke up, which kinda surprised me, and found myself in a cave that was lit by light bulbs without any noticeable entrances. . A guy in a pair of orange pants, with spikey, brown hair and narrow eyes came over to stand by me. "Welcome back," he said, "Name's Brock. We're, uh, the prisoners of Cinderblock."

"Did I rage at you?" I asked.

Brock shook his head and sighed, "No, but I really ought to apologize. Cinderblock took over Mt. Crescent on my watch. Old man Oak is gonna kill me."

"You know the professor?" I stood up, "How?"

Brock chuckled ruefully, "I'm the area leader for the wasteland district. I'm supposed to help you and Blue identify the different Pokémon that have made their home here, but Cinderblock was stronger than my Pokémon were tough. I didn't take my heavy hitters out with me on the day a supervillain attacks, figures."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out Spike's pokeball. "I've got a male nidoran that knows double kick! He just needs to heal and we can take him!"

Brock studied Spike's pokeball and hummed. "Nah. This Pokémon isn't much stronger than your Beedrill. He'll need a bit of work before he can take Cinderblock."

My veins turned to ice and I pulled my backpack off to look for Buzz's pokeball. "Oh my god. Last thing I saw was that jerk hitting Buzz!"

At the top of my bag was his pokeball, however, complete with sleeping Beedrill inside, and I sighed with relief. "Oh, yeah. I took the liberty of returning that Pokémon to its pokeball. Didn't think you'd like it to be exposed to the elements while it was weak."

Brock returned Spike's pokeball to me and said, "I'm supposed to train you to support your Pokémon better, I've got medicine, and we've got a supervillain to take down. Three birds… one stone."

Brock reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a few diamond shaped revives and a super potion. "What about Cinderblock? Won't he hurt us?"

Brock chuckled. "He won't let us leave, but so long as you pretend to be hurt when he checks on you he'll leave you alone. Dumb as a bag of rocks. We can hear him stomping down the caverns towards us and moan when he gets here."

I nodded and handed him my Pokémon. "Okay. Let's beat a supervillain."


	5. Chapter 5

Ch 5

The cavern Cinderblock left us in had a respectable ceiling, but it was rocky and chock full of stalactites that hung down in such a way that while light got down to us, it was not discernable from where. As Brock had said, it was noticeable whenever Cinderblock was on his way to check on us, and we pretended to remain unconscious. "How did he catch you?" I asked after one such event.

Brock sat up, "I was investigating rumors that Team Rocket was in the area looking for fossils. Found some of the fossils, hid 'em," he sighed, "but I'm not a crimefighter, so when I saw Team Rocket coming I ran. I'm a good battler but twenty thugs vs. me? Nope. Ran right into Cinderblock."

He held out his hand so I pulled him up. "No sign of Team Rocket?"

The leader smiled mischievously. "They were here too, but I woke up before they did."

He pulled a rock up from by my feet, revealing the head of a very angry, gagged man. The rest of his body was under the ground and the rock had been altered by a pokemon to cover his head while offering a few breathing holes. "Not a crimefighter, huh?" I asked.

Brock shrugged. "I'm an expert pokemon trainer. I get by. Speaking of which…"

He called out his Geodude, so I chose Spike. My pokemon panted, but was steely eyed. Shock burst out of his pokeball and climbed up onto my backpack. "I'm sorry bud," I said, "but I can't let you do this right now. Cinderblock won't take it well."

Shock rolled his eyes, undid the zipper on my backpack and crawled inside. I chuckled and refocused on Geodude. "Okay then. Another round?"

Brock's pokemon slammed its fists together, so I pointed and said, "Double Kick."

Spike dashed and spun, delivering a kick to the enemy pokemon's chin, and then spinning to deliver a second to its nose, sending it flying backwards, knocking down a stalagmite, revealing another Rocket Grunt. Brock recalled his pokemon with a nod, "He's strong enough to hurt Cinderblock now, but let's see if he's fast enough."

Brock unleashed his Onix, and instructed, "Spike needs to be fast enough to deliver multiple blows to Cinderblock. It takes time for him to rebuild himself after severe trauma."

I nodded and looked to Spike. "Okay… cause severe trauma."

Spike, to his credit, began to shake with excitement. He lifted up his head and howled with joy. "Uh-oh," Brock whispered as the cavern fell silent again.

Onix looked from Spike to Brock inquisitively while my Pokemon dashed at the enemy. Spike kicked Onix's head into a row of stalagmites, and then down into the earth, sending the sundered rock of the cave in all directions.

Onix lifted his head up and then slammed it down, but Spike ran out of the way and begun his assault anew. "Uh, Spike?" I called.

There was no conceivable way he could have heard me over the screeching of Onix or the rumbling of the cavern itself, but I could hear Cinderblock's steps. "That pokemon of yours sure is lively," Brock understated, "Hope we're ready."

When Cinderblock lumbered into the chamber he roared his displeasure, finally getting the attention of my raging pokemon. Spike stared at him until the supervillain was finished, and then roared right back, glowing silver and rapidly growing into a new form. My pokedex beeped, "Nidorino, the Poison Pin Pokemon. The evolved form of male Nidoran, it has a highly developed horn that is extremely powerful."

When the light faded, Spike huffed and pawed at the ground. "It's on!" I shouted, "Double Kick!"

Spike charged headlong at Cinderblock, and while the supervillain swung its massive arms at my pokemon it just wasn't as fast as the brand new Spike. Spike practically danced around the arms, not sacrificing an ounce of speed for maneuverability.

My pokemon kicked Cinderblock's left knee, cracking it, and the second kick shattered the entire leg, sending Cinderblock tumbling forward. Brock stepped in front of me and demanded, "Use Bind Onix!"

His pokemon, though damaged, surged forward and as Cinderblock pushed itself off the ground, Onix wove under him. Cinderblock grabbed Onix, but the pokemon just flipped its tail up to coil around the enemy. "Prop him up!" I shouted, "Horn Attack!"

Spike's horn glowed and he crashed into Cinderblock's head, and while the attack didn't do much damage, it did send Cinderblock into an upright position where Onix could weave itself around Stalagmites to bind Cinderblock in place. "Now!" Brock clenched his fist, "Give him a reason not to come back to _my_ mountain!"

Spike leapt up through the air to double tap the back of Cinderblock's head, cracking it clear in half. Each half of the head fell on opposite sides of Cinderblock's body. Onix scooped up the right half in its mouth and with the exception of the left half of its head, the supervillain dissolved. Brock rushed forward, and surveyed the remains. "He stopped regenerating…"

A muffled scream came out of Onix's mouth and the remaining half of Cinderblock's head. Brock grinned at me and said, "He can't regenerate when his head is split. I can work with that."

I jogged over to Spike, patting his head and returning him to his pokeball before I turned to Brock. "Okay," I narrowed my eyes and stroked my chin in thought, "What if we separate the heads? Bury them underground?"

Brock nodded, "My thoughts exactly."

The leader pointed down and Onix dove into the rock like it was water, disappearing from view, leaving a gaping hole behind it. When Onix returned it left rubble to fill the hole, and scooped up the other half of Cinderblock. Brock returned his pokemon to its pokeball and we left the cavern. When we reached the surface Brock turned to me and said, "You've really impressed me Red. When you impressed me I was supposed to give you this:" he rummaged through his pockets and produced a gray octagon, which he handed me, "This is the Boulder Badge. An invention of old man Oak. It'll make your pokemon a bit stronger just being around it. Keep it on you."

I flipped it over in my hand and found a safety pin on the back, so I pinned it to the inside of my shirt and continued on. A red streak flew by my eyes and a rose landed inches away from my feet, stopping me instantly. I looked up to one of the cliffsides and saw two figures, a man with shaggy, blue hair that hung around his head and a woman with long, pink hair that curled around her ankles, but both wore white overcoats over black uniforms emblazoned with a red "R" over their hearts.

"Team Rocket?" Brock asked, "In this world?!"

The woman laughed and shouted, "Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it _double!_ " added her compatriot.

I tapped my backpack and Shock crawled out onto my shoulder as the woman declared, "To protect the world from devastation!"

"What does that mean?" I whispered to Brock.

"To unite all people within our nation!" continued the man.

The woman jumped down and rolled to the landing effortlessly, "To denounce the evils of truth and love…"

The man followed her lead, "to extend our reach to the stars above."

"Jesse," the woman grinned like a lady who probably liked to kick children.

The man cleared his throat, "James."

"Are you guys for real?" I asked, taking a step back.

It's not that I was afraid of them so much as they appeared to be quite unhinged. "Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!" Jessie sent out an Ekans.

James sent out a Koffing, "Surrender now or prepare to fight."

I stepped forward and chose Buzz while Shock leapt down. "I've got these scrubs," I assured Brock, "You get Cinderblock out of here."

I pointed to Ekans and said, "Thunderwave and String Shot. Take it out of the picture."

Shock nodded and sent out a wave of electricity, which connected with the enemy Pokémon, but the Koffing flew into the way of Buzz, wrapping itself in string, but as it was technically levitating that didn't matter much. "Switch, but keep it up," I directed.

Shock dashed to the right while Buzz swung over to the left, and they performed their moves again, immobilizing the opposition. "This is between you and us, Brock," Jessie stated, "we don't have to involve the rookie here. Where are the fossils?"

"I'm right here!" I stepped in between them and Brock, "and I'm more than enough for you."

"Use Fury Attack Buzz!" I swiped my hand through the air, "put these loonies down."

Buzz made a pass at Koffing, knocking it into a wall, but the second pass went to Ekans, smashing it into the ground and then the pattern formed. Buzz's third attack nearly deflated Koffing, and then fourth knocked Ekans unconscious.

James clapped sarcastically. "Not so much of a rookie then. Good."

He pulled out a gun that was glowing red and shot at me. Brock pulled me behind him and took the shot to his back. HIs expression scrunched up, expecting pain, but none came, instead his eyes shot wide open and began to glow red.

Blue had been wrong. The last thing he'd seen was Cinderblock, but it had been Team Rocket that hit him with the enrage thing. "It's called the Blood Moon gun," Jessie explained, "shoot light out of some of the ore you find deep in that mountain and it can do nasty things to a body."

I punched Brock as hard as I could in the gut, doubling him over, and then kneed him in the jaw, so when he hit the ground he was already asleep. "Oof," James shuddered, "hate to see how you treat your enemies."

He took aim, but a flash of yellow and red went by, and Kid Flash appeared next to me with Jame's gun in hand. "Nice try jerk," he chuckled, "but this place's sacred ore isn't yours to use."

Jesse drew another weird red gun from inside her coat, but an escrima stick caught her hand and she dropped it. On the opposite cliffside Robin, the woman Blue and I had met at the tower on our second day, and Beast Boy were watching. "You dropped something!" Beast Boy shouted.

The Teen Titans dropped down to stand behind Jessie and James. "Another day then," Jessie said, and recalled her Pokémon.

James did the same, but added, "Team Rocket is blasting off at the speed of light!"

They dropped a smokebomb, and even though Robin ran into the smoke cloud when the smoke cleared, only Robin was there. He sniffed the air and shook his head. "Anyone else smell that?" he asked.

I stepped forward and smelled iron, like someone had bled all over the place, but nobody was or had. "What is that?"

"Trace energized Zeta beams," Robin answered, shaking his head, "if the smell is this strong it's in its beginning stages, but they didn't need a tube or a platform. That's scary."

The woman glided down to the ground and picked up Jessie's gun. "Not as scary as these."

She sighed, and then looked up to me, flashing a smile, "You're okay though, and that's a good thing."

Kid Flash picked up Brock and sped out of sight. "Brock has half of Cinderblock's head!" I shouted after him, but there was no way he could have heard.

The woman stepped up to me and offered out her hand, "The name's Wondergirl, by the way, but you can call me Donna. Donna Troy."

I shook it, and she offered me a yellow disc with a button. I pressed the button and the disc popped open, revealing a screen with a collection of emblems like Robin's "R" or a yellow star on a red field, so I put two and two together. "A communicator," I closed it and put it in my pocket, "that would have come in handy earlier."

Robin scratched the back of his head apologetically, "Blue wasn't really capable of much when he got back. We were looking everywhere above ground."

I returned Buzz to his pokeball and Shock clambered up my side to sit on my pack again. "It's not a problem," I assured, "I got lucky, but I'm going to work harder so I don't need to be that."

Donna's eyes flashed with a purple/white light, and she gasped. "Uh-oh," I backed away slow.

Robin looked over and shrugged, "She's having a vision from her gods. It happens."

Her eyes returned to normal soon enough and she slipped her arm around my waist, in doing so making me intensely aware of the fact that she was beautiful and that her costume was not exactly conservatively made. I blushed and flustered, "W-what are you doing?"

"Artemis wants to have a chat," she explained and then we left the ground.

I'd heard of trainers who liked to battle Pokémon mid-air, and of people that loved to fly airplanes or both, but I must confess that my first time leaving the ground was not entirely enjoyable. There was a lot of me screaming girlishly.

We flew straight up the side of the mountain, climbing to dizzying heights in less than a minute. In two we'd pierced the clouds themselves, and reached the summit. The point of the mountain itself was deceiving, and as we approached it I saw that it had an entrance that swirled with magic not unlike that which had brought me to this world.

Donna didn't even hesitate, she just flew into the vortex, sending us to another world. It was a world of stone buildings nestled in the clouds, and of giant statues that depicted figures I didn't recognize. Donna flew to a building decorated with a silver crescent moon.

The building was open air, with the only borders between it and the outside world being a series of columns which held up the building itself set up at regular intervals. When we landed inside, the light changed from sunlight to moonlight, and Donna set me down. "This is the residence of the goddess of the moon: Artemis."

Light coalesced into the form of a thin woman wearing a toga made of clouds and a silver spear held in her arms behind her shoulders like the yoke of a Tauros on a farm. Her voice was a whisper, but the entire room thrummed with its beats and pauses, "You are the Pokémon trainer Red… defender of my mountain."

She set her spear down and approached me, grabbing my chin with her right arm so that she might examine my face. "You have the eyes of a hunter. I like that. It's not often that I say that about men, so be free to feel complimented."

I blinked, "Thank you?"

She let me go and took a step back, giggling like a schoolgirl. "And polite? Wonders never cease."

She gestured behind her and I saw a trio of Clefairy approaching. "Your people brought these creatures to the world that I watch over. I quite enjoy them too. I'm… rooting for you."

I bowed my head in reverence that I was kind of surprised of. Who was this, or what maybe works better, that I felt so obligated to respect and revere within a minute of meeting them? The goddess smiled, "You showed me a fascinating battle, helped push H.I.V.E, and then Team Rocket too. The way I see it, I owe you three favors."

The first clefairy approached me and handed me a large black bracelet. "A little magic," the goddess explained, "so you don't need to be quite so lucky."

The bracelet was made of plain, black metal and I thought it would cover my wrist up to my elbow. The Clefairy pressed it onto my left wrist and the metal snapped apart and rolled over my arm before fixing itself with a flash of heat. I squeaked in pain and saw a line of molten metal as this "gift" welded itself back together.

As fast as the pain came it left, and the heat didn't leave so much as a mark on the bracelet itself. Foolishly I touched the spot where the heat had been with my right index finger. The bracelet split in half all around my left wrist, with the new piece jumping off that wrist to snap over my right wrist. Each bracelet went just about halfway to my elbows. "What the-?" I managed to ask as pain silenced me again.

Donna put a reassuring hand on my shoulder, "Those are foci… they'll let you use magic. Like a witch's wand or a wizard staff."

"But I don't know how to do magic," I reminded, "I just train Pokémon."

Artemis smiled, and touched each of the bracelets, leaving a red pokeball imprint in either one. A yellow thunderbolt logo appeared over each of the pokeball imprints, then a purple pair of crossbones appeared opposite the thunderbolt, and finally a white six-point star swirled into place clockwise from the thunderbolt but before the split down the pokeball print. "Then as your Pokémon grow so shall your power. We'll start you off with a spell for Shock, Spike, and Buzz respectively then," Artemis gestured for the next clefairy.

It had a silver chain necklace with a ring hung on the links. The ring was gigantic, and was inset with a glimmering stone that changed color depending on how the light hit it. "More magic?" I asked nervously feeling the bracelet on my right arm.

The goddess undid the chain and wrapped it around my neck. "Of your world, maybe," she replied, "I stole it from one of those Rocket grunts. It was for their boss. You'll grow to be able to use it and then use it against the threats I see in your future."

"Threats?" I thought of Cinderblock and adrenaline flowed through me, "then I'll take it."

Artemis leaned forward and gave me a kiss on the forehead. The world melted away, leaving a storage room from Titans' Tower, with the girl in green throwing the starter Pokémon into a bag. Everything fell away a second time, revealing the same girl but standing on the roof of a warehouse directly across the port from Titans' Tower. A man with a partly translucent skull approached her and said, "Darkh is calling it. Cinderblock got brought down by those two trainers. They're the real deal."

The girl sighed angrily, "Of course they're the real deal. I told Darkh that if Oak chose students they would be more than a match for Cinderblock. They have Pokémon and they'll be getting stronger every day."

"Psimon says they shouldn't be fast enough to stop us though," translucent skull sang.

The girl sighed, "I hate it when you talk in the third person, you know that?"

"What's got you so angry?" Psimon chided.

She held out her hand and light collected there in a ball. "If I got powers from you guys then what kind of powers will those two get from the Justice League or their sidekicks?"

The world melted away from me again to reveal Olympus. "And a little hint for good luck," Artemis said, and gestured for us to leave.

Donna picked me up and we flew out of the temple and back though the portal.


	6. Chapter 6

Ch 6

Robin had insisted on a meeting to discuss different strategies on taking down the girl in green's warehouse. I'd slipped out of that meeting and zeta'd to the port. Shock was hiding in my pack and I strolled along the warf like I belonged there. Sure, the sailors and dockworkers stared at me, but I imagined I just looked like some kid who'd been walking home from school. In my world kids would go on journeys as young as ten, and there I was fifteen and walking down a relatively populated area.

Shock growled from inside my backpack so I whispered, "I know you're hot in there buddy, but we've got to be _stealthy_ here."

A disbelieving squeak was all I got in response. "What? Who else should go? One of the titans? In their colorful costumes? Or us, whom nobody knows?"

A sailor stepped into my path and growled, "Well if nobody knows you… then nobody can miss you or your imaginary friend, crazy."

Shock peeked out of my backpack to stare at the giant of a man in a sailing uniform. "Shock! You were supposed to stay hidden!"

Two more sailors walked over and the first one laughed, "See this boys? He's got one of them freaky monsters for a pet! Does it do tricks?"

They began to crowd me, and while the specifics of their intentions were still unknown, I got a distinctly unfriendly feeling from the glimmer in their eyes. "A-as a matter of fact he does," I chuckled, "Thunder Shock."

The ball of electricity hit the first sailor on the chest, sending his body into convulsions that ultimately made his body go rigid and fall over. The sailor on the left backed away, but the one on the right took another step forward, so I held out my right hand, and a word filled my brain so completely that I just said it, "Thunder."

A black cloud about the size of a dinner plate appeared above the sailor's head and a tiny lightning bolt, no bigger than a piece of rope, lanced down onto the sailor's head, sending him into convulsions too. "I can do magic," I whispered, "Holy Miltanks I can do magic!"

The third sailor took off and away down the wharf, and I looked around to find everyone else had gone too. Ice flooded through me as I spun around, looking for a single person, but finding none. "Come on out Shock," I whispered, "I can't help but feel like we're not actually alone."

Shock clambered out of my bag and jumped onto my head, swiveling around to look where I couldn't. A nearby manhole cover flew out of place and landed in the water, so Shock and I locked onto it. I held out my right arm and shouted, "Come out slow!"

"I'm already out though," a familiar, feminine voice came from behind me.

I spun around to come face to face with the girl in green. She had a pokeball in either hand and an eyebrow arched from under her mask to show me her derision for me. "You work for Rocket?" she demanded.

For the first time I got to actually get a good look at her. The costume she wore had lots of padding, but it revealed appealing curves and a flat stomach that was visually appetizing. Her mask covered her eyes, nose and kept her long brown hair behind her ears. I shook my head and glared at her.

"I don't care about Rocket," I said, bringing my outstretched hand to bear on her, "You stole those Pokémon from the Professor! Give them back!"

"A student of Oak," she muttered, "I told Psimon…"

She took a deep breath and threw one of the pokeballs into the water. "There's one of your precious starters. Fetch."

The pokeball floated for a moment, before sinking down below the surface of the murky water. I didn't even think about it, I just dove into the water with my backpack, Shock, and everything. The water burned my eyes so badly I closed them, but without looking I couldn't find the ball, so I opened them again, and saw the red and white orb sitting on top of a sunken and overturned dinghy.

I grabbed the ball, turned to plant my feet on the dinghy and pushed off towards the surface. The second my head was above water my eyes burned with new intensity, and I screamed. While clutching desperately to the pokeball, and wiping at my eyes with my other hand, the water around me began to swirl, and then lift me up.

When I opened my eyes again, a guy with long, black hair, and a costume looked like the upper half was made of red scales, the lower black scales, and a golden "A" belt buckle. The water that was holding me was also swirling around his outstretched hands. When he set me down on the wharf he pulled my hands away from my eyes. "Let me see," he insisted, and more water gathered in his hands.

This second round of water swirled into my eyes for a moment, and then pulled away, ending the burning sensation. I wiped sludge off the pokeball and saw a charmander through the red/translucent half of the sphere. I held the pokeball up and declared, "I got one of the starters back!"

The water-guy narrowed his eyes at me, "Robin said you were tough, but he didn't say you were stupid. Why did you go in here alone? As conspicuous as you are?"

Shock spat water in my face to my dismay and then wiped it off to my bewilderment. "What do you mean? I'm not the guy wearing a costume."

Water-guy pulled on the red half of his costume. "This is Atlantean battle-armor. It keeps me safe. It also has a stealth function," he pressed the "A" on his belt, turning it grey, "so I can hide and avoid being seen entirely."

He shoved an accusatory finger in my face, "You're dressed like a high schooler in the roughest part of Jump City, that is not so coincidentally far away from all the high schools in Jump City… walking around, talking to the Pokémon in your backpack. That's odd on this world, above or below water."

I scratched the back of my head and chuckled nervously, "For now? I mean hopefully not for long?"

Robin, Donna, and Kid Flash walked over. "You blew this raid!" Robin bellowed, "We had a plan and you _blew_ it!"

Kid Flash stepped between us and grabbed Robin's shoulders, "Easy bud. We all made mistakes like this one when we were starting out. He just needs to train with us more. Get a feeling for the group chemistry."

Robin sighed angrily, "This kid is gonna be a liability until we've gone in depth with his tactics. We'll have to make this a priority over everything else."

"You sound like the bat," Donna chided, "We can do this better than that."

Robin glared at her and Wally sighed, "Not the thing to say Donna. Literally anything other than that."

Robin took a deep breath and sighed, "Well I don't know any other way than how I was taught. You take him then Donna. I'm gonna go back into the EMPTY wharehouse."

Donna offered me a hand up and I took it. She grinned at me and whispered, "He'll come around, don't worry. He just… hyper-motivated."

She looped an arm around my waist again and we took off towards Titan's Tower. The third time it was easier. My stomach only flipped and I didn't have to suppress the urge to puke. We landed behind the tower in a massive garden. It had about twelve different kinds of plants, but I couldn't recognize a single one of them. The different plants were organized into squares, each of which only contained one kind of plant, with the entire garden being about forty by fifty feet in dimension with a tree on each corner. Two of the trees had pink flowers and the other two had white blossoms.

She set me down by one of the trees and said, "One sec, if you don't mind, We'll talk while I manage some chores, okay?"

She went over to a small plastic chest and pulled out a pair of trimmer scissors, with which she began pruning some of her plants. "So, the way I see it Red, you're a big gun in the making, but you're not there yet. That means while you train you've got to let some of the others take the reins, offer support for now, understand?"

I nodded, "Yeah," I sat down under the nearest tree and put Charmander's pokeball into my backpack, "I wasn't really thinking about it like you or water-guy."

Donna stopped and looked over at me, "Water-guy? Wait, do you mean Garth? Aqualad?"

Shock snorted and pulled on my sleeve with glee. "His name is Aqualad? Seriously?"

"Don't let him catch you laughing there buddy," Donna warned, "He and Aquaman don't like it when people laugh about their names. They'll summon a Great White Shark to gnaw on you."

Shock shrugged and ran up the tree's trunk to sniff the flowers. "He likes them!" Donna exclaimed, "Apple blossoms smell beautiful, don't they Shock?"

I nodded and breathed in, enjoying the scent myself. "They must take a lot of work without Pokémon aid."

Donna nodded, "I've had less time for them recently with all that's been going on. Maybe a Pokémon is exactly what I need. Which kind would you recommend?"

"Buzz, come on out," I said as I tossed Buzz's pokeball into the air.

Buzz looked around and swarmed to and fro from flower to flower from tree to tree, before settling on a branch next to Shock. "Bug Pokémon are known to shape forests, remember?" I asked, "The whole thing where I got poisoned? A bug Pokémon can manage all the difficult stuff in your garden and keep other bugs away."

Donna put down the clippers and walked over to the tree. "Could you manage this garden for me Buzz?" she asked, "When I can't, at least?"

I stood up and handed her Buzz's pokeball. "Here. As thanks for helping me before and all the help you're supposed to give me with the magic and training."

As Donna took the pokeball my foci-bracers flashed with purple light. I looked and saw the purple crossbones fuze into one crossbone. "Your poison spell got weaker," Donna muttered, "Are you sure? I mean you raised this Pokémon."

I shook my head. "Buzz will be happy with you, and that's as important as any of my feelings. He's got an entire garden here."

Buzz settled on Donna's shoulder for a moment, and then returned to frenzied gardening. "Well, with all my gardening taken care of," Donna paused, "I guess we should get started on training."

The trip into the tower and then the elevator was quiet. I felt awkward, being alone with her. She was beautiful. Stunning. Her smile was amicable and friendly, with a sisterly feeling behind it, making me feel almost dirty for being as attracted to her as I was. I didn't feel like I had to feel awkward or dirty, after all she wasn't my sister, and there was a way for me to start something… romantic, but I didn't know how. We went up to the simulation room, and Donna pressed a few buttons. The silver panels fell away to reveal a city on fire.

"Whoa," I whispered, "Has… has this happened on your world?"

"Yeah," Donna shrugged, "it happens, I guess."

A woman in a tight green dress with long black hair, eyes that were only black with no distinction between iris, pupil or sclera, and oily black tears streaming down her face stepped out from between two ruined buildings to face us. "This is the Enchantress," Donna said, "She's locked up, but we have enough data on her to simulate her."

I pulled Spike's pokeball out of my bag, but Donna gently guided my hand down. "Nope. Just you and your magic. Support me while I fight her. Then we can get complex."

I nodded and stepped back. Donna floated into the air and then flew at the Enchantress, putting her shoulder into the simulation's gut, and carrying her through a dilapidated wall. Before the dust could settle however, Donna flew back out, arms crossed in front of her to block a purple lightning bolt with her vambraces.

The Enchantress rose out of the rubble with her arms out to each side and an odd wiggle raced through her body that would have been seductive if only her head hadn't been facing backwards. I panicked, held out my hand and shouted, "Thunder!"

A tiny bolt of lightning struck her, sending her plummeting back to the earth, where she landed poorly. As she began the work of pulling her various mangled limbs back into place Donna brought both her fists down on the villain's head, smashing her into pixels. My stomach dropped out of me, "Would that have killed her?"

Donna absently shook her head, "Nah. Basically unkillable. She's possessed by a demon/witch/thing. That's why I picked her. Even if you screwed up it would be okay."

We went through an entire prison's worth of villains though. Mad Mod, Cinderblock, Brother Blood, some horrible thing called Clayface. Each of them was a different variation of the same thing. Donna smashed their faces and I waited for an opening or I created an opening for Donna to smash their face. It was the sixth villain that threw me for a loop.

He was made of ice, features that included exaggerated spikes for his hair and giant gauntlets of frost. I could see through him, and for a moment I could see his organs, also translucent. "Really?" I asked.

"Icicle Jr," Donna confirmed, "piece of work. Wants to be just like his supervillain dad."

I held out my hand and shouted, "Thunder!"

The tiny lightning bolt ran through Jr's body, but he just smiled wider. I thought of Spike so the words would come naturally, and held out both arms towards Jr. "Bio."

Twin streams of green bubbles flew out of my hands to wash over Jr. The bubbles popped without force on Jr.'s spikes, but the liquid the bubbles were made out of began to hiss after a moment and Icicle screamed. "I think that might be poison," I squeaked.

Jr bent over in pain, but then screamed and the temperature of the entire room dropped. Ice covered up the poison and dropped off his body, leaving him no worse for wear, but now there was a positively sadistic look in his eyes. "Jr. ain't one for staying down. So long as there's the tiniest piece of himself left over he'll regrow himself with moisture from the air," Donna supplied and dropped into a fighting stance.

I pulled out Charmander's ball from my backpack and chose him for battle. "Your name is Flare. Welcome to training."

My bracers glowed with white light that turned red and I saw a tiny flame logo had appeared below each of the pokeball logos. Donna delivered an uppercut to Icicle, so I held my hand out and shouted, "Fire!"

A lance of pure fire flew out of my palm, but missed Icicle entirely. "Take your time," Donna chided, and punched Icicle down.

The supervillain landed with a crash, and was imbedded in the fake asphalt, leaving himself open. I aimed again and said, "Fire."

The fire went straight through Icicle, ruining the holographic panels he'd been projected onto. I looked up and saw a second scorch mark in what was supposed to be the sky. "That's powerful magic there Red," Donna marveled as she touched down on the ground next to me, "be careful, okay?"

I shared a look with Flare, and I shrugged. "What's the worst that could happen?"


End file.
